Lorraine Hansberry News

The New York Musical Theatre Festival and Grep Cooper Productions, LLC LLC have announced that Virginia Woodruff (Violet, Leap of Faith, The Color Purple, All Shook Up, Smokey Joe's Cafe), Cheryl A. Freeman (The Who's Tommy , Disney's Hercules), Tyler Hardwick , Anthony Chatmon II , Miche Braden and Darilyn Castillo have joined the cast of ACAPPELLA. Rounding out the company are Katrina R. Dideriksen, Gavyn Pickens, Emily Goglia, Rachel Gavaletz, Janelle McDermoth, Darryl Williams, Alex Koceja and Garrett Turner.

Ebony Repertory Theatre (ERT - Founder/Producer Wren T. Brown) announced today that they will present the Pulitzer Prize Finalist and Tony Award-nominated production of THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS starring Tony Award-winner Roger Robinson (Joe Turner's Come and Gone) as Oedpius. The acclaimed production, conceived and adapted by Lee Breuer (Mabou Mines' Trilogy) and music by Bob Telson (Lincoln Center Theater's Chronicle of a Death Foretold), is a soul stirring dramatic-musical which takes place within the framework of a Pentecostal church service set against the tragic Greek background of the story of Oedipus at Colonus, in which the exiled king Oedipus seeks a place where he may be properly buried. ERT's production, directed by Andi Chapman (Actors Co-op's Steel Magnolias - Drama-Logue Award for Outstanding Director), will commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Premiere. Performances will run tonight, June 18 - July 19, 2015 with an official press opening on Saturday, June 20 at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center (4718 West Washington Boulevard) in Los Angeles.

Somewhere in my prodigious vinyl collection there is at least one album by the self-proclaimed 'High Priestess of Soul,' Nina Simone; and having just seen SIMPLY SIMONE: The Music of Nina Simone, at the Hattiloo Theatre, I am taking a deep breath and planning to thumb through my myriad of records in order to seek it out. Nina Simone never quite 'caught on' with mainstream audiences; the legendary Aretha Franklin, who, like Simone, emerged from a gospel background and was a gifted pianist, was much more successful in that respect. Simone was too idiosyncratic a performer to be pigeonholed or labeled. She scoffed at being called a blues singer or a jazz singer; her early classical training, encouraged by a white pianist and patron (who collected money from the people in the town and helped to enroll at Juilliard), always informed her music. Moreover, the songs she chose to interpret, in addition to her own, were an eclectic repertoire: Everything from Gershwin to the Beatles. Underappreciated in her own country, and disillusioned by the stagnation of the Civil Rights Movement after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., she found her audience abroad, particularly in France; she turned her back on disco (which she disdainfully dismissed) and was selective and intelligent in the music she chose to interpret, which left no room for her on the popularity bandwagon.

Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris is a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play that is sure to stimulate much debate on social issues - past and present. It plays at Two Muses Theatre from tonight, June 5 through June 21.

Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris is a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play that is sure to stimulate much debate on social issues - past and present. It plays at Two Muses Theatre from June 5 through June 21.

Cleveland Public Theatre (CPT) Executive Artistic Director Raymond Bobgan presents the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea by Nathan Alan Davis, directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian. The production stars emerging actor, poet, and hip hop artist Kalim Hill-a longtime participant in CPT's youth education programs-now a sophomore at Cleveland State University.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) celebrates the transformative power of Shakespeare with GALA 2015 on Monday, June 8 at the Theater's home on Navy Pier.

The Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon of One-Act Plays, the original festival of its kind, returns for its 35th incarnation, tonight, May 13, at 7:00pm at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, 549 West 52nd Street. 

Second Stage Theatre has announced two New York Premiere productions for its upcoming 37th season.  The season will kick off in fall 2015 with the New York Premiere production of Matt Gould and Griffin Matthews' new musical, INVISIBLE THREAD (previously titled Witness Uganda), in association with American Repertory Theater, directed by Tony Award winner Diane Paulus (Finding Neverland, Pippin).  The season will continue in early 2016 with the New York premiere of Lydia R. Diamond's (Stick Fly) critically acclaimed play, SMART PEOPLE, directed by Tony Award Winner Kenny Leon (Fences, A Raisin in the Sun, Stick Fly). Two additional productions remain to be announced. 

Cleveland Public Theatre (CPT) Executive Artistic Director Raymond Bobgan presents the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea by Nathan Alan Davis, directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian. The production stars emerging actor, poet, and hip hop artist Kalim Hill-a longtime participant in CPT's youth education programs-now a sophomore at Cleveland State University.

A secret cache of letters brings together a former Black Power leader, his estranged daughter and her drug-dealing boyfriend in a powerful story of family and activism. The West Coast premiere of Dominique Morisseau's explosive, uncensored Sunset Baby opens on April 25 at the Odyssey Theatre. Check out photos from the production below!

Ebony Repertory Theatre (ERT - Founder/Producer Wren T. Brown) announced today that they will present the Pulitzer Prize Finalist and Tony Award-nominated production of THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS starring Tony Award-winner Roger Robinson (Joe Turner's Come and Gone) as Oedpius. The acclaimed production, conceived and adapted by Lee Breuer (Mabou Mines' Trilogy) and music by Bob Telson (Lincoln Center Theater's Chronicle of a Death Foretold), is a soul stirring dramatic-musical which takes place within the framework of a Pentecostal church service set against the tragic Greek background of the story of Oedipus at Colonus, in which the exiled king Oedipus seeks a place where he may be properly buried. ERT's production, directed by Andi Chapman (Actors Co-op's Steel Magnolias - Drama-Logue Award for Outstanding Director), will commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Premiere. Performances will run June 18 - July 19, 2015 with an official press opening on Saturday, June 20 at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center (4718 West Washington Boulevard) in Los Angeles.

The Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon of One-Act Plays, the original festival of its kind, returns for its 35th incarnation Wednesday, May 13, at 7:00pm at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, 549 West 52nd Street. 

Kansas City Repertory Theatre continues its 50th anniversary season with Sticky Traps, a powerful new play by KC Rep's Playwright in Residence, Nathan Louis Jackson, Directed by Resident Director, Kyle Hatley. Sticky Traps focuses on a small town not far from Kansas City, where a mother protects her gay son's honor when his funeral is protested by a local church. Her actions have unintended consequences that will test her whole family - and the power of their love -- in the face of hate. The production begins tonight, April 24th and runs through Sunday, May 24th at Copaken Stage in downtown Kansas City.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today announced the national awardees of the 47th annual Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF), which was held April 13-18, 2015.

A secret cache of letters brings together a former Black Power leader, his estranged daughter and her drug-dealing boyfriend in a powerful story of family and activism, revolution and estrangement. The West Coast premiere of Dominique Morisseau's explosive, uncensored Sunset Baby opens tonight, April 18 at the Odyssey Theatre.

St. Petersburg City Theatre continues its 90th Mainstage Season, presented by Raymond James, with the Tony Award and Pulitzer-Prize winning CLYBOURNE PARK, written by Bruce Norris. Opening night is tonight, April 17, 2015 and the production runs through May 3, 2015. There is a talk-back planned on April 19 following the performance.

HISTORY MATTERS/BACK TO THE FUTURE, a coalition of theatre professionals, announced the winner of the 1st annual Judith Barlow Prize is Selina Fillinger, a student at Northwestern University, who wrote a one-act play inspired by Sophie Treadwell's play Machinal. Ms. Fillinger will receive $2,500, a trip to New York City and a staged reading of her play on Sunday, May 3rd at 3 pm at Helen Mills Theater, 139 West 26th Street, NYC. Award-winning actress Kathleen Chalfant will direct the reading which is free and open to the public.